Upgrading my hard drive need advice.

dmxdex2020

dmxdex2020

dmxdex2020

Soldato
Joined
16 Nov 2008
Posts
2,925
Location
West Midlands
I have a seagate barracuda 500gb 32mb cache. I find the drive noisy and slow. I would like to upgrade but i am not sure if i should buy 2 hard drives one for OS and apps and one for games, or if its better to buy a 1TB drive as i would like my games to load and run at max aswell as my OS and apps.

The WD 500gb 32mb drive looks good it says it has dual processor not sure if that a gimmick or not its rather cheap.
 
I do not have a clue how to do that lol. like i said my drive is noisy and i think its faulty i would like to upgrade, should i get a 1 TB and do this partition thing you mentioned with the help of people from the forums aswell.

Like i asked are the WD HDD are con with dual processor in them? or do the samsungs have the same tech aswell? because the F1 1TB drive looks good.
 
Last edited:
If you think it's faulty you should probably get it checked out using the Seagate tools and RMA it for a replacement. But first I'd get all your data backed up and safe :)

If you want to get your games, OS and apps to load fast you should consider getting an SSD for your boot partition and then a larger mechanical drive for all your data.
 
If you want max speed without going SSD, get your 1TB drive, then if your current one isn't faulty/not too slow, you'd probably be best putting OS/apps on the 1TB in a partition (you can do this before installing Windows) and the games in a partition on the 500GB - spreading it between two drives means everything can run that bit faster, but you don't have to worry about a RAID array.
 
I am selling my old pc with the hdd, its noisy and i would like a new one that is what i am going to do.

Now i want my files seperated OS and apps seperate to games, would getting a 1 TB be a good idea and do this partition thing someone was on about?
 
Over-partitioning is liable to slow the drive down. What I do is have OS, apps, games on one partition, docs in another partition, and the rest storage (on my laptop). The main seeks will be to do with the OS, apps, and games, and so having separate partitions for each of those will increase seek times because the data will be stored further apart than if they're all in the same partition. Docs/storage seperate partition/s because of ease of reinstall/backing up, and relatively rare seeks, so they can be apart from the main OS stuff without compromising performance.
 
Most people, me included, have the OS and apps on one partition, games on another and docs on an external drive. I do split mine into 3 though as i have the 3rd for work related stuff.

Easy to partition when you first install the OS, prob Win 7? You get the chance at the start to partition the OS partition etc. Very easy to do. Probably best to google it for exact procedure if you are unsure.
 
raptormonkey said:
Most people, me included, have the OS and apps on one partition, games on another and docs on an external drive. I do split mine into 3 though as i have the 3rd for work related stuff.

Easy to partition when you first install the OS, prob Win 7? You get the chance at the start to partition the OS partition etc. Very easy to do. Probably best to google it for exact procedure if you are unsure.
Click to expand...

Ok so if i get 1TB then i can do this? explain partition each thing what does it do? gives it seperate part of the HDD? and would it be same as having games on seperate HDD if it is all partitioned seperately?
 
Partitioning sections off a particular part of the drive, whatever you choose to be the size. You can choose the size when installing windows. I usually set the partition to around 64gb for OS and Apps.

And yes, it is like having a separate Hard Drive.
 
raptormonkey said:
And yes, it is like having a separate Hard Drive.
Click to expand...

Only in what you see via Windows; e.g. one drive formatted into two partitions shows up as two drives in My Computer. But of course it doesn't have the speed of two hard drives - for example, copying files from one partition to the next will be slow (probably <30MB/s on a modern HDD) whereas copying files from one hard drive to another will be limited by the slower HDD (probably average 100MB/s or more with modern HDDs).

Just get your 1TB drive and do the partition thing like raptormonkey suggested!
 
Ok i will not be transfering files around a such, i will just have a partition for OS an apps and seperate partition for games.

Now that i going to buy a 1TB drive which drive is best to buy? this drive looks nice and sounds good http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-226-WD&groupid=701&catid=14&subcat=1279

The WD 1TB drive states it has 2 processor is that a gimmick or does it really use 2 processors?

And this drive also looks and sounds very nice.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-053-SA&groupid=701&catid=14&subcat=1279

Does this drive also use 2 processor like the WD? sorry when it comes to HDDS im a complete noob.
 
I doubt the dual processor thing makes any difference in anything other than an workstation environment which is frequently going to have a command queue depth of at least 4, but don't quote me because I don't know what the function of the processors is, I'm just guessing. I doubt it makes much difference for regular home use anyway.
HDD manufacturers is pretty much just personal preference. Get the WD Black if you're going WD; the F1 (or wait for the F3) if you're going Samsung, etc. But the Seagate 7200.12 isn't meant to be that good as an OS drive.
 
Is the samsung F1 spinpoint any good for games? is it very similar to the WD? i looked around on google and it says the WD is noisy which i do not like. The samsung is a lot quieter according to the internet but does it play games well and is it a fast drive?
 
TBH there'll be little difference in game loading times with most modern HDDs, the F1'll be fine, don't know if it's faster or slower.

Edit:
does it play games well
Click to expand...
Just so you know, the CPU and graphics card are probably more important for playing games ;)
 
Last edited:
miniyazz said:
TBH there'll be little difference in game loading times with most modern HDDs, the F1'll be fine, don't know if it's faster or slower.

Edit: Just so you know, the CPU and graphics card are probably more important for playing games ;)
Click to expand...

I mean does it load games quick. i would like a quiet drive which is also fast, the WD 1TB in the review state its loud were as the F1 is quiet. But is their much between in read and write speeds? ans seek times?
 
I think that im going to buy a 500 Gb WD i cannot afford 70 pounds for the 1TB. I will partition 60 GB for OS and Apps And the rest for games, i hope this makes games load very quick.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom